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Woodrow Wilson formally became a member of the Columbia First Presbyterian Church in 1873 and remained a member throughout his life. His uncle was also a Presbyterian minister, but was removed from the ministry after preaching evolution. As president, Wilson was asked about his belief in evolution. In response, he wrote: " Of course, like every other man of education and intelligence I do believe in organic evolution. It surprises me that at this late date such questions should be raised."
As a young man, Wilson was interested in theology. His father had assured him that faith was more important than doctrinal details, saying: "My son, don't you worry about doctrinal problems. Ask yourself this question: Do I love and want to serve the Lord Jesus Christ? If you can answer that in the affirmative, you need not worry."
Wilson transferred to Princeton as a freshman when his father began teaching at the university. He graduated in 1879, following that he attended law school at the University of Virginia. Wilson was admitted to the Georgia bar and made a brief attempt at law practice in January 1882 but after less than a year, he abandoned the practice to pursue his study of political science and history. In the fall of April 1883, Wilson entered Johns Hopkins University to study history and political science. Three years later, he completed his doctoral dissertation, Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics, and received a Ph.D. He married his first wife, Ellen, in 1885.
After teaching at Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan Universities, Wilson returned to Princeton where he was named the first non-minister president of Princeton University in 1902. As president of the university, Wilson hired Roman Catholic and Jewish professors and expanded the science curricula, all to the consternation of many of the conservative Presbyterians on the board of directors. He made up for his lack of a theology degree by adhering to a daily practice of Bible study before bed and embarking on a lifelong study of Christian history. In 1911, he spoke of his personal views on the Bible at a speech given in Denver, in which he said:
"[The Bible is] a book which reveals men unto themselves, not as creatures in bondage, not as men under human authority, not as those bidden to take counsel and command of any human source. It reveals every man to himself as a distinct moral agent, responsible not to men, not even to those men whom he has put over him in authority, but responsible through his own conscience to his Lord and Maker. Whenever a man sees this vision he stands up a free man, whatever may be the government under which he lives, if he sees beyond the circumstances of his own life."
Wilson left academia for politics following his being on the losing end of a struggle over the location of a graduate school. He was elected Governor of New Jersey in 1908 and four years later he found himself as his party's candidate for President. He was elected President in 1912 in an election which saw the Republican party split between conservatives and progressives. In his first inaugural address in 1913, Wilson told the nation:
"The Nation has been deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn passion, stirred by the knowledge of wrong, of ideals lost, of government too often debauched and made an instrument of evil. The feelings with which we face this new age of right and opportunity sweep across our heartstrings like some air out of God's own presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled and the judge and the brother are one. We know our task to be no mere task of politics but a task which shall search us through and through, whether we be able to understand our time and the need of our people, whether we be indeed their spokesmen and interpreters, whether we have the pure heart to comprehend and the rectified will to choose our high course of action. This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. Here muster, not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity. Men's hearts wait upon us; men's lives hang in the balance; men's hopes call upon us to say what we will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? Who dares fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me!"
Wilson served two terms as President. In 1915, he wrote to a friend named Nancy Toy about his faith, saying:
"My life would not be worth living if it were not for the driving power of religion, for faith, pure and simple. I have seen all my life the arguments against it without ever having been moved by them. Never for a moment have I had one doubt about my religious beliefs. There are people who believe only so far as they understand, that seems to me presumptuous and sets their understanding as the standard of the Universe. I am sorry for such people."
Re-elected in 1916, he faced the prospect of his nation entering the Great War. In his second inaugural address, he said:
"I pray God I may be given the wisdom and the prudence to do my duty in the true spirit of this great people. I am their servant and can succeed only as they sustain and guide me by their confidence and their counsel. The thing I shall count upon, the thing without which neither counsel nor action will avail, is the unity of America, an America united in feeling, in purpose and in its vision of duty, of opportunity and of service."
In April 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war in order to make "the world safe for democracy." During the war, Wilson focused on diplomacy and financial considerations, leaving military strategy to his generals. He supported loans of billions of dollars to Britain, France, and other Allies, to aid their finance of the war effort. Through the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, he suppressed anti-draft activists and others who opposed the war.
In 1919, following victory in the Great War, Wilson traveled to Paris, promoting the formation of a League of Nations, concluding the Treaty of Versailles. There he became the first sitting President to meet with the Pope as he met with Pope Benedict XV. Following his return from Europe, Wilson embarked on a nationwide tour in 1919 to campaign for the treaty, suffering a severe stroke. The treaty was met with serious concern by Senate Republicans, and Wilson rejected a compromise effort led by Henry Cabot Lodge, leading to the Senate's rejection of the treaty. Wilson suffered a serious stroke and secluded himself in the White House, in an effort to conceal the full extent of his disability while ineffectively trying to hold on to his power and influence. For his sponsorship of the League of Nations, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize, even though he was unable to convince his nation to support the measure.
After the end of his second term in 1921, Wilson and his wife moved from the White House to a town house in the Embassy Row section of Washington, D.C. On November 10, 1923, Wilson made a short Armistice Day radio speech from the library of his home, his last national address. The following day he spoke briefly from the front steps to more than 20,000 well wishers gathered outside the house. On February 3, 1924, Wilson died at home of a stroke and other heart-related problems at age 67. He was interred in a sarcophagus in Washington National Cathedral, the only president interred in Washington, D.C